


her audit, though delay’d, answer’d must be

by stillskies



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis, xxxHoLic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-05
Updated: 2012-03-05
Packaged: 2017-11-01 04:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stillskies/pseuds/stillskies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They always meet for tea on the first snowfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	her audit, though delay’d, answer’d must be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/gifts).



> Originally posted 12-24-2008

They meet for tea once a year on the night of the first snowfall. Yumiko loves the way the lights play on the snowflakes as they fall from the sky, dancing and spinning in a quiet ballet that only those who can perceive are privy to. 

The first fall is early this year, but she does not mind. She has taken a table outside on the sidewalk despite the pleading of the shop girl for her to pick a table inside. She isn’t cold – the scarf that Syuusuke gave her for her birthday is soft around her neck, and the boots that Yuuta gave her are keeping her legs warm.

Yuuko-san arrives a bit late, and there is a boy trailing her. Yumiko watches in amusement as she sends the boy off with more packages than he can carry. She can hear his screeching protests, but Yuuko-san just waves and makes her way to the table.

Yumiko nods in greeting and hands her a cup of tea. Yuuko-san takes it and sits down across from her. Neither of them say anything, preferring to sit and sip at their tea. Yumiko looks up into the sky, feeling the cold sting of the wind on her cheeks; Syuusuke will be upset when she returns – he does not approve of these teas with Yuuko-san, not after knowing how powerful the woman is what she can do.

“You seem troubled, Yumiko-chan,” Yuuko-san says, eyeing her over the rim of her teacup. “Is something on your mind?”

Yumiko smiles. “Syuusuke is worried about his relationship with Tezuka-kun,” she reveals, stirring more sugar into her tea. The bitterness of the cranberry is a bit strong. “Perhaps that’s what you sense?”

Yuuko-san smiles in approval. “Perhaps,” she concedes.

The conversation meanders into meaningless small talk. They do not discuss things of immediate significance, only things of relative importance. There are times when Yumiko is tempted to break the rules - to ask about the future of her younger brothers, to ensure that their dreams will be realized – but she doesn’t. The price is too heavy, and neither of them would approve of her decision.

Chatter begins to ebb, and Yumiko looks at the sky. The snow is falling faster, and there is at least an inch covering the sidewalk by their table. People are hurrying past, trying to make it home before it develops into something more serious.

“We have an hour or so before we should be leaving,” Yuuko-san informs her, though Yumiko is not worried. 

“That is good,” she says.

There is silence again. Yuuko-san refills her cup and adds sugar, while Yumiko looks out over the city blanketed in white.

“What do you think of fate, Yuuko-san?”

Yuuko smiles. “Fate is what you make of it. If you believe that your fate is set, then it is. If you believe that nothing is certain, then it isn’t.”

“You believe we can change our fates?”

“No,” the older woman says quietly. “The end is inevitable; nothing can stop what is to come, but the choices you make can influence it.”

“It sounds as though you’re trying to convince yourself of that more than me,” Yumiko comments lightly. “I believe that even inevitability has its limits; things that it cannot allow to happen, despite what fate dictates.”

Yuuko-san shrugs. “The decisions of fate are not my business. I merely assist and grant wishes to those who do not have the willpower to do so themselves.”

The chill from the air is sharper now, as if warning them that, soon, it will destroy the semblance of comfort that they have.

“Perhaps next time we can meet at your shop, Yuuko-san,” Yumiko suggests again. It is a game that they play, even though Yumiko always loses. 

“Perhaps, though I do not think you will be able to see the shop,” Yuuko-san rejoins. 

“I’m beginning to wonder if your shop even exists,” Yumiko jokes, though she knows it does. Syuusuke has been there, has had a wish granted, and regrets it every day. 

“Only those who are in need of it can see it,” she says, just as she has for the past five years that they have known each other.

Yumiko places a few bills on the table and stands. “Perhaps I’ll need it.”

Yuuko-san says nothing. She stands and walks away, leaving Yumiko to watch her back in a flurry of dancing ice, though they do not seem to touch her.

She used to wonder if it was because Yuuko-san looks at everything from a distance, as though there are consequences for being apart of a world where she doesn’t belong. She still does not know, but decides that, maybe, she’ll receive the answer next year.

The snowflakes stick to her as she makes her way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Title shamelessly borrowed from Sonnet 126 by William Shakespeare


End file.
